Ensure the system is using the maximum space on the SD card.  Use the “Expand the file system” option on the initial boot menu.

Switch the default keyboard layout from UK to US (original instructions)

• sudo nano /etc/default/keyboard
• change xkblayout from uk to us
• sudo shutdown -r now

Disable the “default on” interface on ttyAMA0. (original instructions)

• sudo nano /etc/inittab
• Add the “#” to the start of the last line: T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyAMA0 115200 vt10

Update the system to the latest and greatest.

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade
• sudo apt-get autoremove (optional — reduces SD usage from 1685780 to 1508836 on a fresh install, useful if you have a 4GB SD card)

Install Node.js (original instructions).

• wget http://node-arm.herokuapp.com/node_latest_armhf.deb
• sudo dpkg -i node_latest_armhf.deb